The Mouseion · Ancient Worlds · Greece & Rome

Greece & Rome

Painted vases that told the myths, portraits of emperors, and bronzes small enough to hold. Greece set the ideal of the human figure; Rome copied it, spread it across an empire and added the unflattering likeness of real faces.

Walk inThe whole museum

On the walls this month

• 
  Wall painting fragment — 1st century CE, Fresco
  Original: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• 
  Wall painting from the west wall of Room L of the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale — ca. 50–40 BCE, Fresco
  Original: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• 
  Wall painting fragment — 1st century CE, Fresco
  Original: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• 
  Wall painting — ca. 40–30 BCE, Fresco
  Original: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• 
  Wall painting fragment — 1st century CE, Fresco
  Original: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• 
  Wall painting fragment — 1st century CE, Fresco
  Original: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• 
  Wall painting fragment — 1st century CE, Fresco
  Original: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• 
  Wall painting fragment — 1st century CE, Fresco
  Original: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• 
  Wall painting fragment — 1st century CE, Fresco
  Original: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• 
  Wall painting fragment — 2nd–3rd century CE, Fresco
  Original: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• 
  Wall painting fragment — 1st century CE, Fresco
  Original: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• 
  Wall painting on black ground: landscape, from the imperial villa at Boscotrecase — last decade of the 1st century BCE, Fresco
  Original: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• 
  Wall painting fragment with winged figure — ca. 14–68 CE, Fresco
  Original: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• 
  Wall painting fragment — 1st century CE, Fresco
  Original: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• 
  Wall painting fragment with Gorgon mask — ca. 14–68 CE, Fresco
  Original: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• 
  Wall painting on white ground: candelabrum, from the imperial villa at Boscotrecase — last decade of the 1st century BCE, Fresco
  Original: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• 
  Wall painting fragment — 1st century CE, Fresco
  Original: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• 
  Wall painting — mid-4th century BCE, Fresco
  Original: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• 
  Wall painting fragment — 1st century CE, Fresco
  Original: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• 
  Wall painting fragment — 1st century CE, Fresco
  Original: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• 
  Cubiculum (bedroom) from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale — ca. 50–40 BCE, Fresco
  Original: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• 
  Wall painting fragment — 1st century CE, Fresco
  Original: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• 
  Wall painting fragment with a swan — ca. 14–68 CE, Fresco
  Original: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• 
  Wall painting fragment — 1st century CE, Fresco
  Original: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• 
  Wall painting fragment — 1st century CE, Fresco
  Original: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• 
  Mosaic of Tigress and Cubs — 300s CE, tesserae
  Original: The Cleveland Museum of Art
• 
  Relief of Apollo with Nike — 27 BCE–14 CE, Greek marble
  Original: The Cleveland Museum of Art
• 
  Grave Stele (Relief) — c. 50 BCE, marble
  Original: The Cleveland Museum of Art
• 
  Fragment from Black-Figure Neck-Amphora of Panathenaic Shape (Storage Vessel): Apollo with Lyre — Antimenes Painter, c. 520 BCE, ceramic
  Original: The Cleveland Museum of Art
• 
  Fragment from Red-Figure Kylix: Nereus(?) and Nereid — Pistoxenos Painter (-505–-405), c. 470–460 BCE, ceramic
  Original: The Cleveland Museum of Art
• 
  Figure of a Youth from a Funerary Stele (Monument) — Ancient Greek, about 380 BCE, Marble
  Original: The Art Institute of Chicago
• 
  Mirror Support: Athlete — 460–450 BCE, bronze
  Original: The Cleveland Museum of Art
• 
  Oil Ampulla in the Form of a Dancing Bear — 200s CE, bronze
  Original: The Cleveland Museum of Art
• 
  Rhyton (Drinking Vessel) in the Shape of a Donkey Head — Ancient Greek, 480-470 BCE, terracotta, red-figure
  Original: The Art Institute of Chicago
• 
  Kylix (Drinking Cup) — Penthesilea Painter, about 460 BCE, terracotta, red-figure
  Original: The Art Institute of Chicago
• 
  Mug — Ancient Greek, about 460 BCE, terracotta, black-glaze
  Original: The Art Institute of Chicago
• 
  Tetradrachm (Coin) Portraying Demetrius II Nikator of Syria — Ancient Greek, 130-129 BCE, Reign of Demetrius II Nikator of Syria, 145–139 BCE and 129–125 BCE, Silver
  Original: The Art Institute of Chicago
• 
  Eros, the God of Love — 1–100 CE, marble
  Original: The Cleveland Museum of Art
• 
  Fragment from Red-Figure Oinochoe (Wine Jug) or Hydria (Water Jar): Woman Holding Box — Shuvalov Painter (-490–-390), c. 425–420 BCE, ceramic
  Original: The Cleveland Museum of Art

More of Ancient Worlds

• Egypt & Nubia — For three thousand years the Nile valley made art for eternity: statues to house the spirit, painted coffins, amulets…
• Mesopotamia & Persia — Between the Tigris and the Euphrates people built the first cities and wrote the first words, pressed into clay…

Where the works come from

Every work in the Mouseion is a real piece, out of copyright everywhere, shown from the open collections of the museums that hold it — each label names the original’s museum and links to its page there.

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art — Open Access
• The Art Institute of Chicago — public-domain collection
• The Cleveland Museum of Art — Open Access
• Wikimedia Commons — public-domain photographs of works held elsewhere